What is Public Liability Insurance?
If an accident or unforeseeable incident causes damage or injury to someone (other than your employees), you may be found legally liable to cover the costs.
Public liability insurance can help you protect your business from the financial risk of liability claims - giving you the certainty you need to trade with confidence.
What is Product Liability Insurance?
No matter how stringent your company is, mistakes can happen. For example, you may design or sell a product that causes a customer harm. Even if you’re not at fault, you could risk serious financial damage through legal and court costs if a customer decides to sue you. Product liability insurance is designed to help protect your business if you’re sued because a product you sell, assemble or supply has caused harm to a person or property.
Who should consider it?
While public and product liability insurance isn’t mandatory for most businesses, it is recommended for all companies. That’s because the unpredictable nature of accidents makes them hard to prevent - and the costs of being sued can be extraordinarily high.
In 2014, property and business services was the sector with the highest exposure to public liability risk. It was followed by construction; retail; agriculture, forestry & fishing; personal services; and health and community services.
(APRA, Review of Claims Trends for Liability Insurance in Australia, 2014)
In 2013, there were close to 32,000 public liability claims made. Of these claims, just over 9,000 were claims of bodily injury.
(APRA, Review of Claims Trends for Liability Insurance in Australia, 2014)
Since 2012. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recalled on average 429 products each year.
(Shine Lawyers, “China-Australia Free Trade Agreement: potential commercial implications.”2017)
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